Another Mixed Jobs Report. Another Contest Over What It Means.

Friday’s mixed employment report – job growth was weaker than forecast, but the unemployment rate fell -gave both the White House and Congressional Republicans material to promote their competing formulas for lifting the economy.

The White House and Congressional Democrats said the report shows the Obama administration’s efforts to strengthen the economy – including stimulus spending and tax cuts – are bearing fruit.

“The overall trend of economic data over the past several months has been encouraging, due in large part to the initiatives passed by this Administration, but we still have a ways to go,” Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in a statement.

The White House highlighted the growth in private sector jobs. The report showed the private sector added 113,000 jobs in December. This caps “12 consecutive months of growth that added 1.3 million private sector jobs to the economy during 2010, the strongest private sector job growth since 2006,” Mr. Goolsbee said.

Republicans countered that the December report shows employers remain wary of the administration’s health care and regulatory agenda, which House GOP leaders pledge to rein in.

“House Republicans intend to use our new majority to focus on creating an economic environment in which employers large and small feel confident enough to hire new workers,” said Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.), a member of the House leadership team.

The employment report showed the economy added 103,000 jobs in December, less than the 150,000 forecast by economists. The unemployment rate fell to 9.4%, the lowest level since May 2009 and the biggest fall in more than a decade. A rate of 9.7% was expected. The unemployment rate is obtained from a separate household survey.

The problem for both parties: At December’s pace, it could take nearly six years to replace the 8.4 million jobs lost between December 2007 and December 2009.

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